Photo essay: If you were also at Yijiang Gate, in the morning, on that Tuesday
This photo essay won second place in XJTLU’s 地方: Place and Space international photo competition.
Through the vicissitudes of thousands of years and six dynasties, the walls have stood in Nanjing, witnessing the changes of wind and rain. The existing City Walls of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have accompanied the development and change of Nanjing for more than 600 years. In 1921, a hole was cut into the walls to create what would later be known as Yijiang Gate.
One hundred years after the first visitor passed through Yijiang Gate, I came to Nanjing and walked under the gate. From the towering and sturdy protection to the open embrace, the flow of people, shielding from the wind and rain, underneath this brick and earth that has carried six hundred years of history, time and space blend together; and I, along with every other “me” passing through the gate, am both a passerby and a returnee.
On Tuesday, 28 March 2023, I arrived once again at Yijiang Gate. From dawn until mid-morning, I recorded an ordinary workday. Within the approximately 25-meter-long arch space of the three-hole gate, I captured 445 different moments and selected ten freeze-frame snapshots.
In the west of Nanjing city stands a city gate, the magnificent space holding up the city and witnessing the people living here as we move towards the next six hundred years.
This photo essay won second place in XJTLU’s 地方: Place and Space international photo competition.
Through the vicissitudes of thousands of years and six dynasties, the walls have stood in Nanjing, witnessing the changes of wind and rain. The existing City Walls of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, have accompanied the development and change of Nanjing for more than 600 years. In 1921, a hole was cut into the walls to create what would later be known as Yijiang Gate.
One hundred years after the first visitor passed through Yijiang Gate, I came to Nanjing and walked under the gate. From the towering and sturdy protection to the open embrace, the flow of people, shielding from the wind and rain, underneath this brick and earth that has carried six hundred years of history, time and space blend together; and I, along with every other “me” passing through the gate, am both a passerby and a returnee.
On Tuesday, 28 March 2023, I arrived once again at Yijiang Gate. From dawn until mid-morning, I recorded an ordinary workday. Within the approximately 25-meter-long arch space of the three-hole gate, I captured 445 different moments and selected ten freeze-frame snapshots.
In the west of Nanjing city stands a city gate, the magnificent space holding up the city and witnessing the people living here as we move towards the next six hundred years.
Photos and text by Chengxi Huang